


La Petite Mort

by ilovehowyouletmefall



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/M, PWP, Passion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-16
Updated: 2014-03-16
Packaged: 2018-01-15 21:56:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1320586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilovehowyouletmefall/pseuds/ilovehowyouletmefall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The night was a knife edge between life and death, and they tumbled onto the side of life together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	La Petite Mort

**Author's Note:**

> This is a totally self-indulgent, Giles-is-there-when-Angel-attacks-Jenny-and-they-get-away-and-have-awesome-sex fic. I hope it's enjoyable. In case it's not clear, the initial change from canon is that Giles stays later at school, and what was originally the last conversation between Giles and Jenny happens later in the evening.

Giles stayed late at the library that night.

As he passed Jenny’s classroom he heard the printer, and paused. He pictured Jenny working in the glow of her computer, and smiled at the image. _She loves me_ , he thought.

He opened the classroom door and looked in. It was dark, but he could see Jenny at her desk, watching the printer spit out paper, tapping her pencil impatiently.

Giles knocked.

She spun in her chair, startled by the sound. But when she saw it was him, she smiled brightly, eyes gleaming warmly even in the cold light of the monitor. It had been weeks since Giles had seen that smile. It felt good to be the cause of it again.

“Rupert! Hi!”

“Hello,” he said, stepping tentatively into the classroom, interaction with Jenny still feeling fragile. “Working late?”

His eyes drifted to the computer screen, which displayed some kind of aged text next to what looked like a translation. Intrigued, Giles stepped closer. Before he could examine it, Jenny sprung from her chair and stood before him, distractingly close.

“I talked to Buffy today,” she said.

“Oh?” All thoughts of occult texts flew from his mind at the prospect of reconciliation between the two women.

Jenny clasped her hands behind her back and cast her gaze downward, as if in shyness. “She said you missed me,” she said, raising an eyebrow and looking at him coyly from under heavy lashes.

 So Giles hadn’t been as stoic as he’d thought. Either that, or Buffy had become disconcertingly adept at reading him. He thought he might be blushing, and looked away from Jenny, grateful for the dark. “She’s a meddlesome girl,” he evaded.

He snuck a glance at Jenny. From the way she was looking at him, she knew he was admitting that Buffy was right. He had missed her, terribly. And he’d missed this – the way she always made him feel slightly off-balance, the snap of electricity that came from being near her. For so long there had only been the weight of broken trust between them, but now it was lifted. Jenny loved him, and Buffy wouldn’t hate him for loving Jenny back – which he did.

He wanted to kiss her.

Before he could move, Jenny turned her head to check on the printer. Apparently pleased that it was done its job, she looked back towards Giles.

“And that’s not all,” she said mysteriously.

As she collected the papers, Giles wondered what could possibly be of such immediate importance.

Without a word of explanation, but clearly supressing a smile, Jenny presented the pages to him. Bemused, Giles took them, and read the first few words.

* * *

 

The stunned expression on Rupert’s face was very rewarding. He looked at Jenny, agog, and then back at the spell. His lips moved as he read, as if to make sure that he was reading correctly.

Jenny waited for him to regain the ability to speak, and enjoyed the moment. She’d accomplished the impossible, and found the solution to all their problems. Things with Buffy and Angel would be set right, she and Rupert would be set right. He wouldn’t have to miss her anymore. They could do the whole being-in-love thing properly, with no secrets between them.

Her excited gaze softened to one of affection, drifting over his shoulders, his hands, that familiar tweed suit. She missed being close to him.

“This is it,” Giles finally said.

“Angel’s curse,” Jenny confirmed. “Translated and castable.”

“You did it,” he said, staring at her intently.

“Just me and my computer,” she said, all but daring Rupert to ever say a word against technology again.

Instead, he just smiled at her, excitedly, unconsciously, and said without prelude, “You’re amazing.”

The words cut through her, to the hole left by weeks of guilt and regret and isolation, and began to fill the space with warmth. All at once, Jenny felt she’d had enough of banter and flirtation.

Giles blinked, like he hadn’t intended to say that out loud, but he smiled like he wasn’t sorry he did.

Jenny wanted to kiss him, and she knew he was thinking the same thing. Since he walked into her classroom they’d been on the edge of reaching out to take each other, and now there was nothing in their way.

“We should tell Buffy,” Giles said suddenly.

“Right,” Jenny said. She knew that the sooner they got the ritual done, the better. But she couldn’t quite bring herself to stop staring at Rupert’s lips.

The classroom door clicked shut. Both of their heads snapped towards the sound.

Angel was leaning against the door, hands in his pockets, head cocked in casual interest.

“Tell Buffy what?”

The bottom fell out of Jenny’s stomach, the rest of the world fell away, and all of time narrowed to that one moment.

Not thinking, but feeling compelled to say something, Jenny answered, “We have good news.”

She didn’t see the warning look that Giles threw her, or notice him slowly shifting to stand between her and the vampire.

“My cure, right?” Angel said. He began sauntering towards them.

Jenny stepped back. She tried to step back. She told her feet to move and wondered why she wasn’t moving.

She saw Giles draw himself up to full height and square his shoulders. Angel fixed his eyes on him, and though his back was to her, Jenny knew that Giles was staring Angel down. She wanted to scream at him to run, willed him to get away, but Giles held his ground as Angel moved closer, until they were standing toe-to-toe. Jenny knew she was going to watch Rupert die.

Angel smirked, plucked the spell from Giles’ hand, and circled around to the front of the desk, leafing through the pages.

Jenny closed her eyes with a brief flash of relief, before being startled back to herself by a touch on her arm. It was Giles. Again, he was slowly changing his position, and trying to pull Jenny behind him. He looked to her quickly and ticked his head towards the door, before focusing back on Angel.

Jenny didn’t move a step. She grabbed Giles’ wrist and looked at him, wide-eyed and imploring, when he turned to her. His eyes were cold, his jaw set. He said one word, so quietly it was barely audible.

“ _Run_.”

“This is really impressive,” Angel said, pivoting on his heels to face them. “And to think, you did all that work on this one little box.”

He patted the computer thoughtfully. Then in one swift movement, pulled it off the desk.

Jenny yelped as the computer crashed to the floor in pieces, and scrambled to the door. She wasn’t about to leave Giles behind, but they had to _get out_ of there.

The door was stuck.

She spun around to see Angel standing over the burning wreck of her computer, tearing the pages of the spell and letting them fall into the flames.

Giles was reaching for his breast pocket, trying not to draw attention to himself.

Angel, whimsically warming his hands over the fire, couldn’t have seemed less concerned about Giles or Jenny.

“It never ceases to amaze me how much the world has changed in just two-hundred years,” he mused. His gaze flicked towards the desk. “Oh but this –” he reached for the Orb of Thessula. “This brings back memories.” The orb glowed with unearthly light in his hand.

“Jenny, _run_ ,” Giles said, not bothering to lower his voice this time, and clearly straining to keep it level.

“Yeah, Jenny,” Angel said gleefully. He whipped the orb at her head. She ducked and screamed, feeling the shattered glass rain down on her.

Angel laughed. “Run!”

Jenny threw her weight against the door, but it didn’t budge. All she could think was that she didn’t want to die, she didn’t want things to be over.

Angel was still laughing at her. “Maybe you should make a dash for the window,” he said mockingly.

Giles looked over his shoulder and nodded at her. Jenny had barely processed what he meant when he turned back to Angel and, cross in his fist, struck the vampire in the jaw.

With a snarl and the face of a demon, Angel turned his attention to Giles.

Jenny ran across the classroom.

In the darkness, it took her a moment to find the window that actually opened. As she fumbled with the latch, she tried to shut out the sounds of scuffling, to will her fingers to move faster, but that only made them clumsier.

The window finally opened, and with the fresh air that hit her face, a dozen different plans flit through her mind. _Run. Find Buffy. Get to the car. Get weapons._

There was a crash.

Jenny turned to see the classroom door swinging open. Giles was in the doorway, crumpled on the ground.

Angel stood over him.

* * *

 

“Maybe you should make a dash for the window.”

Giles was terrified, but he had clarity of purpose. He turned to Jenny and nodded. Then he punched Angel in the face.

He couldn’t tell whether the cross did any damage to the vampire, or just made him angry, but he swung at Angel again. This time Angel got a hold of his arm and forced the cross from his grasp. Giles wrenched his arm free before Angel could break any bones.

The two circled each other, Giles knowing that he was outmatched in every respect. He still had a bottle of holy water in his jacket, but it was a one-shot weapon, and he had to be sure to put it to good use. If he attacked, he would be making himself even more vulnerable to Angel. So he waited, and hoped that Jenny had escaped. He didn’t dare take his eyes off of Angel to check.

Angel came at him, and for a moment Giles imagined that he was in a London alleyway. He stepped aside and caught Angel with a punch in the ear that would have floored a normal opponent.

Angel returned with a backhand across Giles’ face. Giles stumbled backwards, struggling to stay on his feet, the classroom spinning before his eyes. He heard Angel snigger, and focused on his opponent’s voice.

“You know, you’re just making it more fun for me to kill you.”

Giles found his balance, but the next moment Angel punched him in the gut. Winded, he doubled over. In just a few seconds his objective had gone from trying to defend himself to trying not to throw up.

Angel grabbed Giles by the front of his jacket and threw him into the door.

The back of his head hit the door with a _crack_. The next thing Giles knew, he was on the floor, and from the pain in his knees he knew he’d hit the ground hard. He was vaguely aware that the door was now open, due to the light that suddenly accentuated every crack and bit of grime on tiles that he was trying to resolve into one image.

Giles grit his teeth and pushed himself upright on shaky arms. Now he had to stand. He had to. He didn’t want to die on the ground.

Angel stood over him, smirking. “Need a hand, old man?”

A chair broke over the back of Angel’s head.

 _Oh good, Buffy’s here_ , Giles thought.

But as Angel turned to face his attacker, Giles saw that it wasn’t the Slayer at all. It was Jenny.

A fresh wave of cold panic washed over him. Giles forced himself to climb to his feet as Jenny swung the remains of the chair at Angel, and Angel swept them from her hands.

Giles gripped the doorframe to keep from falling over. Something solid in his jacket pocket knocked against him. The holy water.

Angel closed one hand around Jenny’s throat, chuckling as she squirmed and scratched at his arm.

“Hey, lover-boy!” he called. “Watch this!”

Angel jerked Jenny against him and spun around to give Giles a better view of her death.

When he turned, Giles was next to him. He smashed the bottle of holy water in Angel’s face.

With a howl of pain, Angel fell to his knees, releasing Jenny from his grasp. Giles felt ready to keel over himself, but Jenny was tugging on his arm, repeating his earlier command to her, “Come on, run!”

Giles was in a haze as they made their way through the school. He kept expecting Angel to appear just behind them, and he didn’t slow down.

By the time they got to the parking lot his head began to clear, but he didn’t trust himself behind the wheel. His car was the closest. He reached for his keys, and cringed in pain as shards of glass cut into his palm. He handed the keys to Jenny.

“You need to drive.”

She nodded in response.

Once they were in the car with the doors shut, Giles took a breath to steady himself.

A silhouette appeared in the doorway of the school.

Jenny’s hands were shaking, and all her attention was focused on getting the key into the ignition.

“Jenny, hurry,” Giles urged, trying to sound calm.

“I’m trying,” Jenny said.

Angel slammed into the car.

Jenny screamed and dropped the keys.

Angel drove his elbow into the driver’s side window, as Jenny fumbled for the keys on the floor. Stuck on his side of the car, Giles felt like a trapped animal. He couldn’t fight, he couldn’t get between Angel and Jenny, only watch helplessly as the window cracked in spider webs around the point of impact.

Angel hit the glass again.

“Jenny!” he yelled, in outright panic.

“Got it!” she cried, keys in hand. She turned the ignition, threw the car into gear, and hit the gas.

The car pealed out of the parking lot, and as they turned the corner, Angel disappeared from view. Giles felt like he couldn’t trust his own eyes, like the vampire would always be lurking just out of sight.

He ran a hand through his hair, then jerked it away, sucking air between his teeth.

“You’re hurt,” Jenny said, eyes flicking from the road to Giles and back again.

“Glass,” he said, as explanation. He began picking out the shards as best he could in the light from passing streetlamps.

They turned another corner, and Giles recognized the route to his house.

“No. We need to go to your flat,” he said adamantly. “I’ve invited Angel in and we don’t have the spell to keep him out.”

“I, uh,” Jenny hesitated. “I left my keys on my desk.”

“I have a copy,” Giles replied, thinking that Jenny should know that.

However, she turned and looked at him for a bit too long, before remembering that her eyes should be on the road.

It occurred to Giles that if he’d been serious about severing ties with Jenny, he wouldn’t have kept her key. But on some level he’d always expected, or at least wanted, to be with her again. He couldn’t think of why he’d be reluctant for her to know that. And now they _were_ together again, but Giles felt like they were still running for their lives, and the idea of _them_ , of _together_ , seemed far away from the immediate task of staying alive.

Giles re-focused on removing bits of glass from his hand.

His injury turned out to be not terribly serious, and by the time he had tied his handkerchief around his hand, they were at Jenny’s apartment.

She lived on the ninth floor. On the way up, Giles was never more than a few inches from Jenny’s side, and he looked over his shoulder compulsively until they were safely through her door.

It was a small apartment. The main room, decorated in black and white, had just enough space for a couch, a coffee table, and a television set, with a tiny kitchen and breakfast bar off to the right. A few steps across from the entrance was the door to Jenny’s bedroom, and next to it the bathroom.

The first thing Giles did when they got inside was make sure that the apartment was empty, that there were no vampires hiding in the other rooms, that the windows were closed and the blinds drawn.

“We should be safe here,” Giles pronounced, though he still felt like there was something else to do, some other steps to be taken to ensure their safety.

He went back to the main room, where Jenny was standing against the door, eyes closed, breathing deeply.

“We’re safe,” he repeated.

She didn’t move. He stepped closer, worried that she was hurt in some way he couldn’t see.

“Jenny?” he asked gently. “Are you alright?”

She opened her eyes, and without her saying anything, Giles knew that the answer was “No.”

He wasn’t sure if he went to her, or if Jenny came to him, or both, but all of a sudden she was in his arms, and he decided that he would never, ever let her go.

Jenny’s hands slid up his back, and she nuzzled against his neck. With the physicality of her presence, it struck Giles how close he’d come to never being able to hold her again, and tightened his embrace.

“I thought –” Jenny let out a halting breath that felt hot on his skin. “Oh God, I thought it was over. I thought you –”

She couldn’t finish the thought, and instead curled her fingers into his jacket and pressed her lips to his neck.

At her touch, the tension that had been winding in his chest since they were attacked grew even tighter, tight enough to snap. She felt good, and right in his arms, and after that night, like the only thing in the world that mattered.

He pulled back, just enough to hold Jenny’s face between his hands, and rest his forehead against hers. He tangled his fingers in her hair and closed his eyes.

Giles wanted to kiss her. He ached for it. He wanted to revel in her body, in her life, to affirm that they were both alive, that they really made it and were in love. He wanted to lose himself in loving her.

He caressed her face, and held back. Jenny was scared, and vulnerable, they were both traumatized, they should wait –

Giles’ line of thought was interrupted when Jenny kissed him.

* * *

 

Giles had said that they were safe. And objectively, Jenny knew he was right. But she couldn’t make herself believe it. At any moment, either of them could lose the other, and the idea of an end – to her life, to Rupert, to _them_ and every chance she thought they’d have – filled her with desperate urgency.

So with Rupert so close, his fingers gentle in her hair and his body warm and solid under her hands, the only thing Jenny could do was kiss him, like she would die if she did anything else.

Her hands slid around his waist and up his chest, she pressed against him and still she wasn’t close enough. He staggered a little, before steadying, and kissing Jenny back firmly

Giles was the one who pulled back, breathing her name. Jenny wondered why he was wasting time, feeling somehow certain that _they were running out of time_.

She ducked her head to kiss his neck, her fingers worked at loosening his tie and collar, and a sigh escaped his lips. She pushed him lightly, and he responded, walking backwards until he hit the wall next to the bedroom door. With him pinned against her, Jenny became more fervent, licking the salt from his skin, grazing his throat with her teeth. He moaned, twisted his hand roughly in her hair, pulled her head back and kissed her hard.

Just as she was thinking, _Yes. Yes, this,_ he stopped. He pressed his lips to hers softly. And then he held her still, one hand in her hair, the other braced against her shoulder. They remained close, enough for Jenny to feel his breath on her lips. He was breathing heavily, and his gaze flickered from her eyes to her mouth and back again.

“Rupert?”

“I love you,” he said with grim seriousness, as if she would never know unless he told her that instant.

“Then love me,” Jenny said, impatient and commanding.

A spark lit behind Giles’ eyes, and he nodded. And then he was kissing her again.

If there was anything else in the world other than the two of them, their bodies, that kiss, Jenny couldn’t let herself think about it. She kicked off her shoes and dropped two inches in height. Giles took her by the waist and turned, so she was the one pinned to the wall, feet barely touching the ground. Rupert holding her against him, the pressure of his lips, the taste of his mouth, their mingling breath, her rising heartbeat – outside of all that was a world where she’d lost it all, felt the hand of death at her throat. Rupert’s mouth was at her jaw, nipping at her earlobe, his breath making her skin burn, a deep ache clawing at her core. She had to get them to her bed.

The bedroom door was open and the light was on from when Giles had checked the apartment. Jenny pushed him away from her just enough to grab his lapels and drag him along with her as she backed through the door.

Jenny’s bedroom was lit dimly by small, heavily shaded bedside lamps, with golden-yellow walls and furniture in deep reds and browns, including a desk for her computer. Most of the space was taken up by a queen-sized bed with thick, copper-coloured bedding.

“Shoes off,” she said, and Giles complied, leaning in the doorway to pull off his shoes and socks, and placing his glasses on her dresser. While he was busy, Jenny backed towards the bed, pulling off her top and camisole at once.

Though Rupert had seen her like this before, she felt newly vulnerable, human and fragile. His eyes didn’t leave her for a moment, and soon his body was against hers again, and he felt like shelter, like home.

She shuddered when he caressed her breasts, thumbs brushing softly against her nipples. His hands left her briefly when she pushed his jacket off his shoulders, and then his suspenders. As she pulled off his tie, his lips began to travel down her neck and across her shoulder, making her sigh and wish that he was naked and underneath her already. Or at least that she was able to get his shirt off, but he was descending out of reach, mouthing at her breasts, her ribs, her stomach. He was on his knees, unzipping her skirt and hooking his fingers over the waistband as he licked from her hip bone up her side, making her gasp. He pulled her skirt and panties down together.

From the first press of his tongue against her clit, Jenny’s only thought was, _More._ Her hands curled in his hair and her hips rocked involuntarily as he teased her, flicking and swirling his tongue, humming against her and caressing her thighs. Her legs shook, and she had to lie back on the bed, the blankets feeling incongruously cool under her bare skin. A pulsing glow was building inside of her as Rupert continued, now lapping inside of her, now sucking at her clit, and her hands scrabbled at the mattress. She cried out incoherently as she came. She was in pieces, held together by the static pull of pleasure, and Rupert was still trying to push her further, but she wanted something else. She wanted to feel the sweat of his body as they slid together, to feel his heartbeat under her palm, to make him spit out her name like a curse, like the name of a goddess, to feel him inside her.

“Stop,” she said, and he did.

Jenny took a steadying breath, then curled her legs underneath her and rose up on her knees. Rupert climbed onto the bed, and kissed her, tasting sweet and musky. She pulled back to concentrate on unbuttoning his shirt, but Rupert began kissing her neck, his fingers finding their way between her legs. Her impulse was to shut her eyes, throw back her head and enjoy the attention, but Rupert was still fully clothed, and that just wasn’t fair. She grit her teeth and continued unbuttoning, but then a fresh wave of pleasure broke over her, and she swore with impatience and tore the shirt open.

While Rupert was occupied with pulling his arms out of the sleeves, she moved on to his pants, undoing them quickly, and pushing them down over his hips until his erection sprung free, tall and solid.

He let out a choked gasp when Jenny wrapped a hand around him, and she realized that he hadn’t been touched the entire time. She gently squeezed, and ran her thumb through the precome collecting at the head, spreading it across the smooth skin of his cock. He moaned, and for once held his hands entirely still.

Jenny pushed him lightly, and he lay back. She helped him get his pants off the rest of the way. Then, finally, she straddled over him. She leaned down and kissed him fiercely, grinding against his cock, getting him slick with her wetness. He bucked his hips and whined deep in his throat, and Jenny smiled. She sat back and trailed her fingers across his chest, thinking about how long she had waited for Rupert to look at her this way, wide-eyed and wanting. How long it had taken them to get to this point that, she felt, they were always meant for.

Not taking her eyes off Rupert’s face, Jenny took his cock in hand and slowly, slowly, sank onto him.

* * *

 

For a while, Jenny was all but still, shifting slightly, tightening briefly around him, getting used to him inside her. Giles’ hands slid over her thighs and hips, his gaze over her slim frame, to her eyes, which caught the warm glow of her bedside lamp. His pulse quickened in anticipation, just at the feeling of her heat. Jenny was beautiful and he was an idiot to have thought that he could ever be anything but at her mercy.

Jenny leaned down to kiss him, and began to slowly rock her hips, and Giles raised his hips off the bed to meet her. She brushed her lips softly against his, pulling away just before he could kiss her properly. She kissed him quickly and then pulled away again, smiling mischievously. They continued kissing each other, lightly, playfully, rubbing noses and trading breath, all while building a steady rhythm between them.

Jenny nipped at his earlobe and blew cool air against his neck, and Giles laughed. He kissed her eyebrow, her cheek, the corner of her mouth. Their eyes met, and hers sparkled with desire and life. He cupped one palm to her face, and she nestled against it, while the fingers of his bandaged hand drew a line up her spine, feeling every vertebra, coming to rest between her shoulders. They felt narrow against the span of his fingers. Suddenly Giles could see very clearly how small Jenny had been in Angel’s grasp, how easily broken. He closed his eyes against the image, but it wouldn’t quite disappear.

Giles pulled Jenny’s lips down to his, thrusting his tongue into her mouth, and his hips up against hers, making sure of her presence, her solidity. She bore down on him harder, quickening her pace, breathing, “Yes,” against his mouth. Giles sucked bruises into Jenny’s neck and shoulder, as if by marking her he could anchor her to this world forever. She moaned into his ear, and he relished the sound.

“I want you to come inside me,” she whispered. He felt a clenching in his abdomen, a building tension, pushed that much closer by her words alone.

Jenny reared up, moving wildly as the sea, crashing into him like a wave, and her name spilled from his mouth, over and over until it became a stream of nonsense. She built herself to climax, dragging Giles along with her, despite the fact that he didn’t want it to end.

Being next to her, with their pressing skin and mingling sweat, inside her, hot and tight and throbbing, he felt connected, he felt a part of her. In an unthinking way he was afraid of losing her when it was over.

When she came, with his name on her lips, clenching and quivering around his cock, Giles dug his nails into his palms, bit his tongue until he tasted blood, and held back.

He kept his hands clamped on Jenny’s hips to hold her in place, and sat up. She gasped at the sudden change of angle, which allowed him to penetrate that much deeper into her. Then, gently, he crossed his legs under her, and reached for legs, wrapping them around his waist.

Jenny was still quaking from her orgasm, and every touch – Giles’ fingers sliding across her back and shoulders, grazing the curve of her rear, his lips on her throat, licking the sweat from her collar bone – was a new shock of bliss, making her tremble; and Giles felt every movement. She clung to him, burying her face in the crook of his neck, deliriously muttering his name.

Being like that, so deep inside her, Jenny’s limbs circling his body, his arms around her, hot and slick, pulsing with blood and passion, shaking with every breath and sensation, balanced on the precipice of climax, was like a small piece of eternity.

Giles bowed his head to kiss her breasts, tongue playing over their curves, one bandaged hand caressing and gently squeezing. His other hand crept between her legs, thumb finding her clit and slowly rubbing. Jenny keened and ground against him, and Giles gave a shuddering sigh in return. He took a nipple in his mouth and sucked it between his teeth. Jenny cursed, jerking her hips forward and clenching around him. He gasped out hot breath against her breasts, circling his thumb faster around her clit.

Jenny rocked her hips as much as she could in her position, clutched Giles’ head to her chest, and whispered hoarsely, “Please, please, oh God, please, Rupert, just lay me back and make me come.”

So he did.

* * *

 

Rupert flipped Jenny onto her back, thrusting hard, while Jenny clawed at his shoulders and twined her legs around him, pulling her hips off the bed to get the right angle. And then he hit it. Jenny’s arms fell away to clutch at the pillow and sheets. She felt like a dying star, condensing until it explodes into a new universe; like she was falling from the stratosphere, to be caught and lifted into the air again at the last moment; like a dozen other ridiculous, beautiful, filthy things that she didn’t even realize she was saying out loud until Rupert cut her off with a kiss and a rough “I love you.”

His hands found hers, stilling them. They laced their fingers together and held tight.

It wasn’t a matter of shutting out the rest of the world anymore, or forgetting what happened. Jenny and Rupert were a world unto themselves. The night was a knife edge between life and death, and they tumbled onto the side of life together. And she was free.

* * *

 

Jenny woke to the sound of Rupert’s voice and running water, and the sun just beginning to peek through the gaps in the blinds.

She glanced at her bedside clock. There were still a couple of hours until they had to be at work. She would’ve preferred to stay cocooned in blankets for a while, groggily enjoying the comfort of a warm bed and sex-slackened muscles. But, she remembered, they could stand to get to the school early. There were things that had to be dealt with – specifically, a wrecked classroom.

The terror of the previous night touched her briefly, but she closed her eyes and it was gone, almost like it had happened to somebody else. But not quite. Rupert’s voice cut through the dark haze of thoughts.

 _He sings in the shower_ , she thought, and smiled.

Jenny found a robe, and padded barefoot to the washroom. She knocked on the door, and he was silenced.

“Can I come in?”

“Yes,” Rupert answered.

“You don’t have to stop,” Jenny said as she entered. She went to the sink, and opened the drawer underneath. “I like listening to you.”

“Actually, I wanted to mention,” Rupert said, looking around the shower curtain, “Last night, we were, ah, somewhat reckless, understandably so, but, uh…”

They had talked about having sex over a month ago, before Angel lost his soul, and Jenny knew that they were both clean, so that wasn’t what bothered him. She interrupted by holding up the package of birth control pills she’d been rummaging for.

“Oh. Right. Good,” Rupert said with a nod, and ducked back behind the curtain.

Jenny took her pill, then sidled up to the shower, running her fingers along the collar of her robe.

“Mind if I join you?” she asked.

They made love in the shower, slow and easy and purely happy. It felt like a promise.

* * *

 

Giles got dressed as best he could, considering that half the buttons were missing off his shirt. He told Jenny that they’d have to stop at his place for a new one, and Jenny suggested that he keep a change of clothes at her apartment from then on.

“Do you intend to make a habit out of destroying my clothes?” Giles asked.

“You bet I am,” Jenny replied.

Giles had been trying to feign annoyance, but Jenny’s forthrightness disarmed him. As always. He realized that he would likely never be able to flirt with her without being transformed from a grown man into a bashful mess.

All he could do was smile.

The handkerchief that he’d used to bandage his hand was in sad shape. Jenny mentioned that she had a first aid kit.

“We probably should’ve done this last night,” she said as she brought the kit from the washroom to where Giles waited on her couch.

“We were reasonably distracted,” Giles said. “I can do that,” he added, as Jenny took his hand and began to dab disinfectant on it.

Jenny handed him some medical tape. “You can tape that up,” she said, indicating one particularly bad cut. “It looks pretty deep.”

He did as she suggested, while she turned her attention to the bruise on his jaw, disinfecting it as well.

“Ow!” Giles exclaimed, only partly in genuine surprise, but more to tease Jenny about her lack of nursing skills.

“Sorry,” Jenny said, though the corner of her mouth twitched upward. “The skin’s broken.” But the next moment she became serious. “I guess we got off pretty easy.”

“We did,” Giles agreed. He reached for a bandage and began wrapping his hand.

He felt Jenny tracing his hairline and turned into her touch. She was looking at him with a solemn intensity, lips slightly parted, lashes heavy over her dark eyes. Giles knew that the memory of that night, of being so close to death, and the feeling of almost losing each other, would never leave either of them entirely. Just as he would never stop being a blushing suitor, and never stop loving, or falling in love with Jenny.

He could live with that.

Giles was tempted to carry Jenny back to bed, but he was a Watcher with responsibilities, and they had to be on their way soon. He taped down the end of the bandage, while enjoying the feeling of Jenny’s fingers in his hair.

“It’s a shame about your work, though,” he said. “To lose all that.”

Jenny chuckled. “You know as much about computers as Angel, don’t you?”

Giles looked at her quizzically. He was missing something.

“I imagine so…”

Jenny grinned at him. “I backed up my files.”

Giles blinked at her.

“The spell is saved on a disk,” she explained. “I just have to grab it off my desk and we’re good to go.”

Giles stared at her, agape, while Jenny shrugged like this wasn’t terribly important information.

“Of course, the problem is tracking down another Orb of Thessula. I have a bad feeling that the shop I got it from was… forcibly shut down,” she said grimly.

“I have one in my office,” Giles told her.

Jenny’s gaze snapped to meet his.

“We need to get to school,” she said, jumping up from the couch.

“With a detour for clothing,” Giles reminded her, as he followed.

“That’s my Rupert: all buttoned up,” Jenny teased.

Giles and Jenny left together.


End file.
